Andreea Cotoranu

Andreea Cotoranu is a Clinical Professor in the Information Technology Department, and Director of the New York City Design Factory initiative at Pace University. Andreea teaches product development, research methods and project-based courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her research interests lie at the intersection of natural language processing, human-computer interaction, and computing/cybersecurity education. Prior to joining the faculty in 2019, Andreea served as Assistant Dean for Academic Innovation in the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University. In this role she focused on developing educational environments that enrich the student experience. Specifically, she designed and implemented project-based experiences with multiple academic disciplines, international collaborations, and partnerships with industry and academia. Andreea’s work shares a common goal of creating curricular and pedagogical structures as well as academic cultures that facilitate students' interests, motivation, and desire to persist in computing. During her tenure at Pace University, Andreea spearheaded efforts in cybersecurity education, training, and outreach, and she is associated with the Cybersecurity Education Research Lab at Pace. She is the Principal Investigator for the Pace GenCyber program funded by the National Security Agency and the National Science Foundation aiming to expand cybersecurity education at the high school level by training teachers. She is also the Co-Principal Investigator for the Department of Defense Cyber Scholarship Program aimed to recruit the nation’s top cybersecurity talent to the DoD workforce to protect the nation’s information systems and networks.